Cowick Street

Integrating contemporary design into a conservation setting

This is a mixed use development comprising 244sqm of commercial floor space, two one-bed flats, four duplex apartments and five courtyard houses.

The local planning authority adopted a new Supplementary Planning Document (SPD), which required close interrogation with regard to this challenging site. The response from planning officers and the committee to our contemporary design was very positive. In the case officer’s report, he confirmed “the architecture of the scheme will also be striking and will contribute positively to the character and appearance of the conservation area”.

Our landscape and planning teams were involved throughout the process. Our landscape architects designed the internal courtyard, and implemented a planting strategy to balance with the hard surface treatments and building mass. While our planners dealt with matters related to the SPD. For example, the roof terraces on the town houses respond to the requirement for every house to have no less than 35sqm of private amenity space.